Page 495 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

cast of four was unchanged, but the scoring has been scaled down from full orchestra to
an ensemble of just 10 players, and the work itself shortened; the Snape Maltings
performance lasted barely 55 minutes.

Weir’s libretto has plenty of authentically operatic ingredients – there’s murder and
incest, paranoia and insanity. Based on a novella by the German romantic writer
Ludwig Tieck, it’s the tale of Eckbert, whose secluded idyll with his wife, Berthe, in the
Harz mountains of northern Germany ends in tragedy when his friend Walter reveals
he knows much more about Berthe’s childhood than he should, and finally reveals a
monstrous secret.

“When Walter reappeared, got up in yeti-like furs, the final scene teetered on the edge of the
ridiculous”

Already compressed in the original libretto, the narrative seemed even more
perfunctory now. And while the use of a chamber ensemble underlined the economy of
Weir’s music and her ability to crystallise a mood or an emotion in a single
instrumental line or a handful of notes, it also emphasised that dramatic frailty. This is
a story with terrible consequences, but the laconic presentation and mostly prosaic
vocal writing hardly conveyed any of that horror.

Not that Robin Norton-Hale’s drab production, designed by Eleanor Bull, was much
help. The setting was contemporary; Eckbert’s castle became a spartan modern
apartment, and just a few schematic trees hinted at the archetypal forest of German
folklore in which the climactic horror takes place. The narrative remained opaque, and
when Walter reappeared as the threatening Hugo got up in yeti-like furs, the final scene
teetered on the edge of the ridiculous.

Though the singers had little scope for making their characters convincingly three-
dimensional, musically all the performances under conductor Gerry Cornelius were
excellent. The text came across clearly from Simon Wallfisch as Eckbert and William
Morgan as Walter, and especially when Flora McIntosh’s Berthe revealed the story of
her childhood. Aoife Miskelly had the most rewarding vocal lines in the smooth
melismas that Weir gives to the Bird, who also narrates the story. But it all remained
stubbornly uninvolving.

Blond Eckbert will be part of English Touring Opera’s autumn season from 5 October
to 16 November. The Aldeburgh festival continues to 23 June.